Erlotinib Conjugated Nitrogen Doped Carbon Nanodots for Targeted Fluorescence Imaging of Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the world due to non-specific symptoms at early stages and late diagnosis. In this article, we report the use of nitrogen doped carbon nanodots (NCD) as fluorescent contrast agents for in vitro imaging of live pancreatic cancer cells. The surface of these NCDs was functionalised with tyrosine kinase inhibitor type anticancer drug named erlotinib. This targeting ligand enables specific in vitro targeting of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpressed human pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC-1). The receptor-mediated fluorescence staining with targeted NCD was further tested by monitoring in vitro targeting in L929 mouse fibroblast cells with normal EGFR expression. The confocal fluorescence microscopic images show uniform fluorescence staining on PANC-1 cells and a localised fluorescence staining on the central region of normal L929 cells. The fluorescence stability of targeted NCD even after conjugation with bovine serum albumin proved its potential for cellular imaging.

The Application of Inorganic Nanoparticles in Molecular Targeted Cancer Therapy: EGFR Targeting

“…The fluorescence of C-MIP was quenched with the determination limit of 0.73 μg ml −1 , when C-MIP specifically bonded to the epitopes of EGFR through their imprinted cavities. Erlotinib mediated nitrogen doped CDs (NCDs) also proved that this nanosystem possessed an effective capability for targeted fluorescence imaging of pancreatic cancer cells (Devi et al, 2020). It is worth noting that nitrogen doped content had an effect on photoluminescence of NCDs, and thus NCDs (citric acid: urea 1:1 by mass) exhibited the strongest fluorescence intensity.…”